Turn again to 1 Kings chapter
8 in which we begin to read of how King Solomon dedicated the
temple. How the people of Israel were
assembled before Solomon and came to the feast of dedication. Verse 1 we read. And all the men of Israel assembled
themselves unto King Solomon at the feast in the month Ephanim,
which is the seventh month. And all the elders of Israel
came, and the priests took up the ark, and they brought up
the ark of the Lord, and the tabernacle of the congregation,
and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle, even
those did the priests and the Levites bring up. king solomon
and all the congregation of israel that were assembled under him
were with him before the ark sacrificing sheep and oxen that
could not be told nor numbered for multitude and the priest
brought in the ark of the covenant of the lord under his place into
the oracle of the house to the most holy place even under the
wings of the cherubims For the cherubims spread forth their
two wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubims covered
the ark and the staves thereof above. And they drew out the
staves, that the ends of the staves were seen out in the holy
place before the oracle, and they were not seen without. And
there they are unto this day. There was nothing in the ark,
save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb,
when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel,
when they came out of the land of Egypt. And it came to pass,
when the priests would come out of the holy place, that the cloud
filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not
stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the
Lord had filled the house of the Lord. Then Solomon assembled
the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the
chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto King Solomon
in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant
of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion. Here in this chapter we see the
whole congregation of Israel assembled Assembled before their
king. Assembled at the house of the
Lord. Assembled at the temple. Assembled before King Solomon
David's son. And assembled in the seventh
month. The assembly was so great, the
multitude gathered in this place was so great that we read that
it could not be told nor numbered for multitude. What a scene this
is! What a glorious day this was! That at last this people, called
out of Egypt, delivered out of Egypt by Moses, who wandered
in the wilderness for 40 years, who were at last by Joshua brought
into the promised land into Canaan, who were given a kingdom and
settled with a king in Jerusalem. At last they who worship their
Lord in the wilderness are brought into a settled place unto the
house of the Lord which Solomon had built. here as it were that
people come to their final destination and in a figure this whole scene
presents us with a great picture of the gospel a great picture
of how the king sets the temple before his people how he gathers
and assembles his people unto him and into his house how he
gathers them from the four corners of the earth, how he gathers
them out of the wilderness, how he gathers this wandering people,
this wayward people, this sinful and wicked and rebellious people,
how he gathers his people unto himself, unto their king, unto
the temple, into the house of God, into their final rest. Here Solomon stands, the king
stands before the multitude and he talks unto them, he declares
unto them and he leads them unto God in prayer as the chapter
goes on. And in this we see a picture
of Christ before his people. drawing them unto God, drawing
them unto their salvation, preaching the gospel unto them from heaven's
glory. Christ the King, the Son of God,
assembles His people. He gathers them from the four
corners of the earth. He gathers them into His house,
into His temple. He declares his great mercy and
righteousness in the gospel. He declares salvation. He declares
his finished work. And he draws them into union
with himself and their God. In this picture, In this scene
of Solomon assembling the congregation of Israel to the house of the
Lord, we see a great declaration of the gospel. Christ is preached
as the only way to God, the only righteousness of his people,
their entire salvation and their temple, their house, their dwelling
place. Firstly here we see the one who
assembles the people. Then Solomon assembled the elders
of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the
fathers of the children of Israel, unto King Solomon in Jerusalem,
that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord
out of the city of David, which is Zion. King Solomon assembled
his people. He gathered them, he summoned
and this great congregation that could not be numbered come before
him and behold what he has built for them and their God and hear
him speak. It is the king who gathers his
people. It is the king who preaches. It is the son who declares He
is the message preached. In figure, Christ stands before
his people. He gathers them. He assembles
them. And he preaches unto them. And
he is the message. He is their salvation. He is
their righteousness. He is their holiness. He is their
life. He is the one who has delivered
them, he's delivered them out of Egypt, he's brought them through
the wilderness, he's brought them through the battles, through
their enemies, he's delivered them from every enemy that came
upon them. And he's brought them at last
into their eternal rest, heaven's glory, their eternal temple,
the house of God, of which all of this is a picture. This multitude
gathered knew where they had come from. They knew that generations
past they were captive in Egypt. They knew how God had delivered
them through Moses. They knew of their rebellion
and their complaint in the wilderness. They knew of how God gave the
law unto Moses to prove them and of how they failed to keep
it. How even when Moses was in the
mount, receiving the tablets of stone, they had risen up to
worship idols. They turned their back on their
God when God was meeting with their mediator. Moses break the first tablets
before God wrote them again. These people knew of their history,
they knew of the decades wandering in the wilderness. They knew
of how God brought them through Jordan, dry shod by Joshua. They knew of how they conquered
their enemies in Canaan, of how the walls of Jericho were brought
down, of how all the enemies of God were destroyed. They knew
of God's provision to them in the wilderness. They knew of
the keeping hand of God through all their trials and all the
ups and downs. They knew of how God had kept
Israel and kept them through the ages and to this day. They
knew of how God had given them a kingdom and of how God had
given them King David and Solomon whose heart was set upon building
a house for the Lord. They knew of the glory of God
declared in the tabernacle, in the worship of God, in the sacrifice. They knew of the depiction of
righteousness in the offering up of the blood of bulls and
sheep. They knew of the meaning of the
blood that would be shed and sprinkled upon the mercy seat
upon the top of the Ark of the Covenant, underneath the cherubims
in the Holy of Holies. This was a people who knew of
their own rebellion, of their own sin, of their own waywardness,
of their own depravity. Of how they had murmured and
grumbled and complained against their God. Of how they'd gone
astray like sheep. And yet their God had kept them.
Their God had kept them as a people. He'd gathered them. He protected
them. He provided for them in the wilderness.
He'd given them manor in the wilderness. He'd been present
with them by night and by day. In the fire and in the cloud.
As he went before them in the tabernacle, he'd forgiven them
of their transgressions and he'd led them into this place, into
this city Zion, and to this day, and to this house. And it's their
king that stands before them on this day preaching in type
and figure of their Saviour to come, Christ the Lord, the Son
of God, of whom all these things point. As God brought you to
see the King, the Son, stood before his people in his house,
can you see beyond the outward here to that which is eternal
and everlasting. Can you with this people see
yourself? Can you see your own rebellion,
your own waywardness, your own murmurings at God, your own depravity
within? and yet see the mercy and the
grace of God that has kept you and watched over you and brought
you to this day. As King Solomon assembled all
the congregation of Israel before him, what an assembly this is.
The priests, the elders, the heads of the tribes, the chief
of the fathers of the children of Israel, all the men of Israel
assembled, all the elders of Israel came. And there was a
multitude which could not be told nor numbered. The whole
congregation is gathered. What a scene this was. What a
multitude. We're reminded of those pictures
in the book of Revelation of that multitude which will be
gathered around the throne of the Lamb of God, a multitude
that cannot be numbered. A people drawn out from all ages
and all generations and all nations. A people chosen of God in Christ
to be saved, to be delivered, to hear this message, to hear
this gospel and to be delivered of their sins. Delivered from
Egypt. Delivered from captivity. Delivered
out of the wilderness. and gathered into eternal glory,
into the house of God, never to be removed. What a multitude
there was on this day. What a multitude there will be
on that day. Are you one of them? Are you one of them? All that were gathered before
Solomon on this day were wretched sinners. Wretched sinners. The children of Israel. Back
in time God had chosen Jacob over Esau. He'd had mercy upon
Jacob. And of Jacob there were twelve
sons that became the twelve tribes of Israel. But there was no good
in Jacob over and above that which was in his brother Esau
that God should have mercy on him. God didn't choose Jacob
and his descendants because of anything they had done or anything
they were. God chose Jacob, Israel and the
tribes of Israel. God chose his people in Christ
because of his desire, his purpose to show mercy unto a people that
deserved it not. Jacob was a wretched schemer,
and all his descendants are just like him. All his physical descendants
in this age, in this day before Solomon, were no better than
Jacob was in their heart. And if you ever know the grace
of God, you will own that you're no better than Jacob either.
By nature, we are wretched sinners, depraved, wicked from head to
toe. There is none righteous, no not
one. There is none that have sought
God. There is none that have done
good. The heart deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. We all like sheep have gone astray. We're all rebels before Almighty
God. We've gone our own way, we've
desired our own things, we've sought our own glory and even
when we come to know of God's grace and mercy even as believers
Even those of us who have heard the Gospel from the lips of Jesus
Christ, even those who are gathered before the King as these people
were gathered on this day and have heard the King speak and
have known His forgiveness and known His love and mercy in ourselves,
in our flesh. There dwells no good thing, we're
wretched. We're wretched. There's nothing
in God's people to make them to differ from any others in
themselves. God has not chosen a people because
he saw something good in them. God has not chosen you or I because
there's something about us which makes us better than anyone else.
We're worse. Paul called himself the chief
of sinners. The Apostle Paul whom God chose,
was a Pharisee of the Pharisees of the tribe of Benjamin. As
touching the law he considered himself blameless outwardly and
yet when he came to know what he truly was in his heart he
counted that all but done. He saw his religion as a hindrance because it blinded him to the
reality of what he is. a wretched blind sinner in need
of God's grace. He came to see that all his hope,
all his righteousness, all his salvation was to be found in
Christ alone. And all the religion he once
knew and followed, as the children of Israel here did, was but a
pointer away from himself, away from themselves, unto Christ
alone. None of his keeping of the law
made him righteous. None of his obedience gave him
any credit before God. None of his sacrificing, none
of his keeping the ordinances of God, none of his worship,
none of his attending the temple, none of his outward religion
made him clean. Indeed, if he looked unto that,
if he looked to his obedience, if he looked to his upbringing,
if he looked to his lineage, if he looked to who he was and
what he did, he would be taking pride in it. And seeing something
good in himself in which he could glory, he'd be taken away from
the glory of God. and seeking the glory in God's
presence, he'd be sinning before his creator. And Paul saw that,
that in his heart, in his flesh, there was no good thing. How
can man glory before God? This is made clear in this chapter
when they are gathered for the house of God and the glory of
the Lord filled the house the glory of the Lord had filled
the house of the Lord came to pass when the priests would come
out to the holy place at the cloud filled the house of the
Lord so that the priest could not stand to minister because
of the cloud for the glory of the Lord had filled the house
of the Lord Salvation is of God by grace alone from start to
finish, or there is no salvation. There is no salvation. There
is no room for the glory of man in the things of God. As we read
in 1 Corinthians, The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and
the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling,
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty. And base things of the world
and things which are despised have God chosen, yea, and things
which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh
should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. Yes, here a people is gathered,
assembled in God's presence, but there are people who gloried
in their God. They had nothing to glory in
themselves. God's glory alone filled the
house. Notice when they are gathered.
They are gathered in the month Iphanim, which is the seventh
month. God gathers his people. He gathers
a people perfected of God. washed clean of their sins through
the blood of his sacrifice the blood of christ their savior
and they are gathered in perfection at god's perfect timing god ordered
all things god moved history he moved nations he gave nations
in order that this people should be delivered out of captivity. He brought them up out of Egypt. He raised up Egypt. He raised
up Pharaoh in order that God should show forth his glory in
delivering his people out of Pharaoh's hand, in destroying
Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea. He brought his people out
of the Red Sea through the wilderness. God created and raised up nations
in Canaan in order that he should bring his people into Canaan.
and destroy all their enemies and bring them into the promised
land. God brought this kingdom into being. He set David upon
the throne. He set his son Solomon upon the
throne. He caused him to build this house
and he gathered this great assembly at the appointed hour and at
the appointed time. God's timing is always perfect. Man's timing. is always impatient
and restless. We don't know how to wait. We
don't know how to wait upon the Lord. We're full of complaint, full
of bitterness. God caused his people to wander
through the wilderness for 40 years. Oh, how they complained. Oh, how they wanted to return
back to Egypt and to the ease they thought they had there. Oh how we complain bitterly against
God. Why doesn't this come about?
Why doesn't that happen? When he brings us through trials,
how we want to be delivered out of them immediately. How we want
this to happen and that to happen and this to come about and that
to come about. And yet God works his purposes
out to perfection. In the seventh month, he gathered
and assembled his people. It may seem an age to us, but
a day is as a thousand years unto the Lord, and He will bring
about His purposes perfectly. And on this day, when He gathered
this people, on this perfect day, A picture of that day to
come when all the multitude of God's chosen people will be gathered
around the throne of the Lamb of God. In that day of perfection
the King stood before them and in type and in figure preached
his gospel unto them. Here in this chapter we read
of how the priests are gathered before Solomon. How the Ark of
the Covenant is brought up out of the city of David, Zion and
brought up into the Temple. How the Ark of the Covenant is
set down underneath the cherubims. How the staves have drawn out
of it. How in the Ark there was nothing but the two tables of
stone which Moses put there at Horeb when the Lord made a covenant
with the children of Israel when they came out of the land of
Egypt. here we see how the tabernacle is brought up and the ark from
it and the vessels are all brought into the temple and the ark is
put into the holy place in the Oracle of God and how when the
people offered up sacrifice the cloud in which God dwelt, filled
the house of the Lord, such that the priest could not stand to
minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord had
filled the house of the Lord. Here we see in all these things
a tremendous picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ set before this
people in that day and set before us in type and figure here. as
pointing to Christ and his salvation. Here Christ, the ark, is brought
and laid down underneath the wings of the cherubims. Here
the law, the tablets of stone, are contained and hidden away
within the ark. Here sacrifice is offered up
Here the glory of the Lord fills the house. All a picture of salvation. What brings this people unto
their king? What brings them to the city
of their God? What brings them into Jerusalem? What brings them into the house
of God? How can a wicked and a sinful
people come before their God? They were gathered at the king's
command. But they could come but one way.
There must be sacrifice. There must be righteousness.
They must be cleansed of all their iniquity. They must have
a priest to offer on their behalf and there will be no glory but
that of the Lord in this house. The tables of stone we see in
the ark set forth the demand of God for righteousness from
his people. Thou shalt and thou shalt not. What a law this was. What a law
that finds us all out. What a righteousness that cannot
be kept. Why was the law given? As Paul
tells us in Romans, in order that all the world might become
guilty before God. For none has kept it, in thought
or in deed. How much of the law we have broken,
every single command. There is none who has God as
their only God. How many gods do we bow down
to? How many idols have we set up?
How often do we worship at the idol of self and our own glory? How we fail to keep the Sabbath
day in type, not a day of the week, but a day of resting in
God alone. How we work for our own salvation,
how we look for our own glory, we never rest in Christ. How we murder in our hearts,
how we're angry with others, how we put those that come across
our path to death in our hearts. How we covet everything We can. How coveting we are. How we covet
even in religion. How the religious man covets.
He covets the glory. He covets praise. He covets respect. He covets credit before God. How adulterous we are. How adulterous
this people were. How they went to whoring after
other gods. How we turn from Christ alone.
How we rest in our own glory, in our own wisdom, in our own
righteousness. How this law finds us out. But righteousness is that great
demand of the gospel. There is none that will come
and dwell in God's presence except they be righteous. And the great
picture set before us here is the need and the provision of
righteousness in the gospel. These people needed to be righteous,
but we see in their history that there was none righteous. We
need to be righteous. But we know in our hearts, if
God reveals it to us, that there's not one righteousness that we
have done. Even our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags before a holy God. We're vile. We're utterly
vile. Even the things we think we've
done right are wicked. We're full of pride. We're full
of arrogance. We're full of stealing God's
glory. We're thieves by nature because
we take from the glory of God and would share it and would
steal it and would take it for ourselves. We have no righteousness
and yet we cannot be saved without it. And yet here in this picture
we see an ark in which those tablets of stone are hidden. Because Christ the Ark took the
law and he hid it. He is the righteousness of his
people. In his gospel the righteousness
of God is revealed. He, when he lived under that
law, made a man made under the law. kept it in perfection because
he is the righteousness of God, it could find no fault in him.
Everything he did was righteous. In contrast to us where everything
we do is unrighteous. But in taking that law and taking
it out of sight, he brought in for his people by shedding his
blood on their behalf an everlasting righteousness. Himself in the
sinner's place. He brought in for them righteousness
and made them clean. They look on, the congregation
looked on as the oxen and the sheep were offered. They see
the blood shed. They see the sacrifice made on
their behalf. They see that blood sprinkled
upon the mercy seat. And as Christ preaches His gospel
unto us, He shows forth in His death when he shed his blood
on the behalf of his people, when he bore their sins, when
he took the judgment and the wrath of God against those sins,
when he was made sin in their place, he declares unto them
that I am thy righteousness. I have taken your sin and blotted
it out. I have taken the wrath of God
and the judgment of God against sin. I've swallowed it up. and I've shed my blood to wash
you, to cleanse you, to make you to be the righteousness of
God in me. This is why Paul would write,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power
of God and the salvation to everyone that believe if to the Jew first
and also to the Greek for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith as it is written. The just shall live
by faith. How is the righteousness of God
revealed from faith to faith? Well this people that looked
on in Solomon's day and saw the sacrifices offered and saw the
Ark of the Covenant taken into the holy place and saw the cloud
fill the house they had no righteousness of their own but in looking on
and believing and trusting they believed in the righteousness
that God provided for them. and those who were given true
faith to look beyond the type and the figure seen here in outward
form would see in the ages to come God's Saviour, Jesus Christ,
His Son, offered as their sacrifice, offered as God's Lamb. They would
see a righteousness given unto them in His blood. They would
see themselves crucified in Christ. They'd see their sins judged
and washed away. They'd see a Saviour who brought
in righteousness on their behalf. Has God brought you to where
the faithful of old were brought to look on and in all these things
see Christ your Saviour? Have you seen the King the Son
before you? Have you seen Him leading you
into the house? Have you seen Him in the sacrifice? Have you seen Him as your priest?
Have you seen His blood shed? Have you seen the mercy seat
sprinkled? Have you seen the cherubim's
glory and above it? Have you seen the great cloud
filling the house with God's glory? Have you seen your own
wretchedness? Your own depravity, your own
vileness washed away by that blood. Has God shown mercy unto
you, the sinner? This congregation looked on,
and as Solomon spake, and stood before them, if their eyes were
opened by faith to see, they'd have seen that all of salvation,
all is of God from start to finish. The King gathered them. The King
assembled them there on that day. He brought them there in
the seventh month in perfection. He brought up the tabernacle
on their behalf. He brought up the priests before
them. He brought up the sacrifices.
He brought in the Ark of the Covenant on their behalf. He
brought in righteousness before them. He declared unto them Christ
the Saviour. And He sets forth the glory of
God. Solomon built this house. Solomon
gathers the people. Solomon preaches the gospel. Christ built his house. Christ
gathers his people at his time, in his way. through the Spirit
of God calling them out from the wilderness, calling them
out from Egypt where they're found, calling them out from
their sin. He speaks. His glory fills his
house. He saves to the uttermost. All
is of God. There is none of man here. No
room for man's vain glory. No room for man's boasting. No
room for the religious boasting in his own glory, in his own
holiness, in his own sanctification. No room for the self-righteous
works of man. No room for the vain free will
of man to boast that he made the right choice. No room for
man's glory at all. All is of God. It's God's glory
that fills the house in entirety. And every one of that congregation
that were gathered are a picture of everyone that will be gathered
before the throne of the Lamb of God at that last day. All
wretched sinners. Wretched, vile, lost sinners. Rebels before a holy God. But
all sinners saved by grace, saved by the mercy, the long-suffering,
the forgiveness and the love of God alone. Oh what a salvation! Oh what mercy! Oh what a certainty
of salvation! Christ finished the work, he
made an end of transgressions, he gathers his people, he shall
build his house, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against
it. Not one of his people shall be
plucked out of his hands. Not one of his sheep shall be
lost. Every one whom he calls will
be brought to his house, to his temple, into his kingdom to see
his salvation and his glory. What of you? What of you? Where are you headed? Where are
you going? What are you seeking? What do
you love? What do you desire? In what do
you glory? Has God called you here? Has God gathered you here this
day? Has God brought you to sit and
to listen? Has God brought you to see this
picture that Solomon's gathering here depicts? Has He assembled you in His house? Has He spoken unto you? Has the
Son, the King, spoken unto you? Has He set forth His righteousness? Has He set forth His glory? Has
He set forth His grace and His mercy? Has He declared unto you
what He's done for you in particular? Or is this but a scene of which
you read? A scene from history of which
you hear? Are these things nothing to you? Is it nothing to you, all ye
that pass by? When you hear of Christ, when
you hear of his sacrifice, when you see him upon the cross, do
you just wander by, back to your everyday? Back to those things
that concern you, unmoved, uncaring. When you hear of sin, do you
think of that as something that others do, that the wicked do,
but you're not so bad? Or has God given you a hunger
and a thirst after righteousness? Has he begun to show you something
of what you are? Something of what these people
were. vile, blind, deaf, dead, in need of salvation, as he drawn
you by his Spirit to the feet of Jesus Christ, as he said unto
you in the Gospel, Behold, my son, behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world, as he begun to take
away your glory in himself, declared unto you that in his house there
is no glory but the glory of the Lord as he pointed you by
faith under his son Jesus Christ of whom Paul wrote he loved me
and gave himself for me he loved me and gave himself for me Can
you say that of Christ yourself? When he died, did he take your
sins? When he was crucified, were you
crucified? When his blood was shed, was
it washing away your sins? Can you say of him, he loved
me and gave himself for me?